Czech Republic CZECH REPUBLIC 2020 - Benny Cristo - Kemama

[escYOUnited]

 

[Ritararita]

"Kdepak ty ptáčku hnízdo máš?" ("Where do you have your nest, bird?") from 1973, featured in the Czecho-German co-produced winter version of "Three Wishes for Cinderella" fairytale classic:

Apparently, there is also English version of it called "Where Is the End of Deep Blue Sky":

My personal TOP 3 from Karel Gott's repertoir:

Už z hor zní zvon (Amazing Grace)

Oči barvy holubí (Sealed with a Kiss)

...and something I should probably call a guilty pleasure, but I don't feel guilty about it: Zdvořilý Woody

 

[BorisBubbles]

Hi guys, I'd like to take a closer look at the CZECH REPUBLIC for my next editorial. Any details you might pick up over the days would be greatly appreciated ^__^

 

[nofuxCZ]

Some possible rumours

Colorful People band applied with a song called "Time keeps passing by"

The lead singer Lenka Novotná became friends with our HoD on FB at the end of August (the time when they finally selected the 8 finalists)
From what I saw their music can be quite diverse, they spent a few years in Brasil and some of their songs are sung in Portuguese, interesting fusion of folk, world music, jazz, brazilian influences etc.
I quite like their song The Life Goes On which you can hear (with other songs as well) here: https://bandzone.cz/colorfulpeople

One of the band members also covered Amar Pelos Dois https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg4r9e7Ni5E

Also, Vesna - the band I messaged directly if they'd apply to ESC which they confirmed later - posted something interesting on their FB few weeks ago... something along the lines that January could be a symbol of new beginnings and space for something new for them - not sure if it refers to our NF or something else?

 

[Ritararita]

[MENTION=9138]nofuxCZ[/MENTION] So, basically Carousel 2.0 and Tulia 2.0 are in the game. God help us.

BTW, is at least Lenka Novotná Czech? The guy is Slovak and the other (former?) band members listed on their Bandzone info are - by their names - clearly Slovaks as well.

 

[nofuxCZ]

[MENTION=9138]nofuxCZ[/MENTION] So, basically Carousel 2.0 and Tulia 2.0 are in the game. God help us.

BTW, is at least Lenka Novotná Czech? The guy is Slovak and the other (former?) band members listed on their Bandzone info are - by their names - clearly Slovaks as well.

Yes, she is other members - depends who is currently part of the band - I saw many different names listed including Brazilians and Mexicans and one other Czech too. I guess Lenka and Juraj are the base and the other members come and go.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Wrote some words on the Czech Republic. Curious to what you guys can bring in the upcoming year. ^__^

 

[HayashiM]

Wrote some words on the Czech Republic. Curious to what you guys can bring in the upcoming year. ^__^

I love the caption "Jan Bors at the 2018 contest. Part-time delegate, Full-time wizard".
Especially when I take into account just this January, when a big part of our fandom saw the NF lineup, freaked out and wanted his head on a spike should we not qualify.

* I freaked out too of course, I just thought Barbora would eventually save the day.

 

[Loindici]

I agree though, if they want to make a win, they should be the one to follow. They've managed to slowly take shape in the past 5 years, and I hope they can find THAT song in January.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Even if the Czech don't find that special entry, they are putting so much care into their entries they're probably just going to do well once again.

A lot of people are sleeping on their chances, but shouldn't be.

 

[nofuxCZ]

Wrote some words on the Czech Republic. Curious to what you guys can bring in the upcoming year. ^__^

Congrats, our HoD shared your article on his FB

 

[Preuss]

Wrote some words on the Czech Republic. Curious to what you guys can bring in the upcoming year. ^__^

Your articles are great!

However wouldn’t Czech just turn out to be another country that sends similar, generic pop songs if they were to continue the trend next year? Not that I mind but isn’t this a thing Sweden’s criticized for whereas everyone like: «Oh, Czech Republic, cool». Yeah this is just a hypothetical question really

I wouldn’t mind Prague 2021

 

[BorisBubbles]

Depends on what kind of generic, tbh. It's not like Satellite, Arcade or Amar Pelos Dois pushed any envelopes themselves, they were standard fare compositions in their respective genres. Song, artist and staging just have to come together to make it credible and that's usually enough to pull in the audience.

It's not like "generic" equals bad in ESC. Every contest only has maybe two or three songs that could carry themselves outside of ESC. 2018 is one of the least original contests on a musical level (it's really just Toy and to a lesser extent, O Jardim and Hvala Ne!) and it's one of the most beloved in this decade.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Congrats, our HoD shared your article on his FB

LMFAO. I am flattered, I think.

 

[Diego]

Jan Bors (Czech HoD) in a post on his personal Facebook profile:

"Eurovision is changing very rapidly and we can boldly say that with the Czech Republic we are starting to set a trend. This year will be no different. We have incredibly good songs that many countries will envy. I am absolutely convinced of that."

Remember last year he said we would have one of the best national finals of the season this year. In other words: We can wait for new "Space Sushi".

 

[randajad]

Last Czech NF was actually good.

 

[tuorem]

Jan Bors (Czech HoD) in a post on his personal Facebook profile:

"Eurovision is changing very rapidly and we can boldly say that with the Czech Republic we are starting to set a trend. This year will be no different. We have incredibly good songs that many countries will envy. I am absolutely convinced of that."

Remember last year he said we would have one of the best national finals of the season this year. In other words: We can wait for new "Space Sushi".

That has to be a humorous post. Or maybe he wants to pique the Czechs' interest since the NF is going to be broadcast on TV.

I'm not sure what kind of trend he alludes to tbh

As for the quality of the songs, of course he won't say they have incredibly bad songs that many countries couldn't care less about. Given the precedent of this year's NF lineup though, I'd be more cautious with superlatives.

 

[Mainshow]

Head of delegations and broadcasters always say such things... I can still remember the international hits penned by the most talented and successful songwriters which were "Perfect Life" and "Wildfire" 2017

 

[randajad]

Now I am scared

 

[Etanna]

Jan Bors (Czech HoD) in a post on his personal Facebook profile:

"Eurovision is changing very rapidly and we can boldly say that with the Czech Republic we are starting to set a trend. This year will be no different. We have incredibly good songs that many countries will envy. I am absolutely convinced of that."

Remember last year he said we would have one of the best national finals of the season this year. In other words: We can wait for new "Space Sushi".

I believe he said this in an interview for a magazine so he's probably doing it to make more Czechs interested in the national final&Eurovision...

In the interview, he also mentioned that there will be 8 songs and that there are male artists, female artists and a band. All of them are also rather young. Majority of the songs are mainstream even though with different tempo and sound. One song is "something completely different" (I believe that that could be the Vesna song if nofuxCZ is right and they applied).

Right now they are working on turning the demo versions into proper songs and on preparing the NF and the performances. It seems it will be a typical NF with 6 people maximum on stage, international juries, special interval acts etc. They already put a lot of attention to choreography and so on so I wouldn't be surprised if the performance we'll see in the NF would be very similar to the actual Eurovision performance.

Jan Bors also talked about the voting rules which they are discussing at the moment. He mentioned that he is intrigued by the concept of voters having to vote for exactly three entries so that they would have to listen to all the songs but he isn't sure if it's even possible in terms of technology. Personally, I'm glad they are discussing the voting in this way because it shows that they are aware of the problematic aspects from last year's voting.

 

[ESC94]

Let´s hope for something interesting, I really cross my fingers for to win in the next decade and to bring the contest to Prague!! xcrossed